Fr. Duncan+

I quite agree with you.  I'll take a truth anywhere I
can find it, which is why I quoted from his
introduction.   Far from "poisoning the well" I think
I was pointing to some sweet water.

Charles+ 




--- Knox Duncan <KnoxDuncan@...> wrote:
> Thanks for the quotation from Fosdick:  in this, he
> and Augustine are very  definitely broadcasting on
my wave-length.  And, by  the way, I appreciate
> your subtle "disassociation" from Fosdick; but
> please know that it was his thought, as expressed in
this passage, that has  meaning for me.  Logic
> 101--please pardon my mid-day didactic urge-- calls
> its "poisoning the well"  to denigrate an idea
because of its source. All of  us, I suspect--I know I
> do--often fall into the fallacy of addressing
> primarily the origin rather  than the expression of
thought itself.  Certainly,  it can help mightily to
> know the source to better understand the full
> meaning of the issue.   For  me, though,  the
essence of free inquiry is to be  able to pick and
choose  wonderful nuggets of thought wherever I may
find  them.  Inspiration that > comes to me from such
nuggets, of course, may bear  little relationship to
> the original intent of the author. 

Regards. 
> KnoxDuncan@...
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <chasrscott@...>
> To: <faithandlife@...>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 10:11 AM
> Subject: [FaithandLife] PRAYER AND RELEASE and St.
> Augustine
> 
> 
> >
> > PRAYER AND RELEASE
> >
> > Brothers+
> >
> > Thinking of Lectio Divina and prayer, one’s
> thoughts tend to run in
> another direction than toward Harry Emerson Fosdick.
> >
> > Fosdick was invited by an interdenominational
> committee of scholars to
> write an introduction to “The Book of Prayers”, a
> collection of prayers
> published in 1954.
> >
> > At the outset of his attempt to “point out some of
> the characteristic
> qualities of genuine communion with God” Fosdick
> wrote the following three
> paragraphs.
> > ----------------------------------------
> >
> > Fosdick wrote:
> >
> > For one thing, a shift of attitude from the
> aggressiveness of daily life
> to spiritual quietness, openness, hospitality is
> almost always present.
> There are two aspects to every strong life – rootage
> and fruitage,
> receptivity and activity, relaxation and tension,
> resting back and working
> hard.  A man who cannot do the former can never do
> the latter well, never!
> He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let
> go, cannot hold on; he
> who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.  The
> offices of psychiatrists
> are littered with folk who have mastered the
> techniques of activity and
> aggressiveness and now are going all to pieces
> because they have failed to
> master that other technique:  they have nothing to
> rest back on.
> >
> > Listen to this prayer from the great tradition of
> the Church:  “Let my
> soul take refuge from the crowding turmoil of
> worldly thoughts beneath the
> shadow of thy wings;  let my heart, this sea of
> restless waves, find peace
> in thee, O God.”
> >
> > Whose prayer was that?  Saint Augustine’s.  A weak
> man?  One of history’s
> momentous characters, from his early struggles with
> himself until at last,
> after an immeasurably important contribution to the
> world, as Bishop of
> Hippo in North Africa, he fell on sleep while the
> invading barbarians were
> at the city’s gates and the Roman empire was
> tumbling down about his ears.
> There is no understanding such a life without such
> prayer.  He had something
> to rest back upon.
> > Harry Emerson Fosdick
> >
> > May you find rest from your endeavors and peace as
> you celebrate Christ
> Mass.
> >
> > Charles+
> >
> >
> > --
> > To unsubscribe, send ANY message to
> <faithandlife-unsubscribe@...>
> >
> 
> 
> --
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> 


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